Category: Food

Recipes for healthy eating. Ideas for using vegetables from the garden.

A Raised Garden Bed Made of Fabric

large fabric raised garden
The Bigger Fabric Garden

This weekend I ordered more dirt and filled up my larger fabric “pot” to create a raised garden for some tomatoes and basil. The smaller one in my photo is planted with beans, and next to that I have used one for growing potatoes. What I love about a raised bed is the fact that there is plenty of good dirt for the roots of the plants. I guess that is one of the great things about a raised bed. Digging in the ground means creating layers of great dirt, over time – and it can take a while if the dirt under the garden is fill dirt, or something else that is not good for growing.
My house was built on the side of a big hill. Fill dirt was brought in to make the site level, as often happens. Fill dirt, is usually sandy stuff and that is what I find when I dig down a few inches in my back yard.   You can see that there is little growing in the spot of yard where I put this bag.  I used the loam mix that was delivered from Agway along with my own compost and added a little bonemeal, so I know that my plants are in good soil.
This garden has four tomato plants with some basil and one Italian oregano plant. I don’t know if four tomatoes are too many for this space, but I have other tomatoes planted in the ground too. In fact I made another raised bed using cinder-blocks and set that up out front where there is more sun.

That is the great thing about using these fabric pots and gardens – set them up anywhere!  Find a sunny spot and add a little vegetable garden.  They have allowed me the chance to plant more while I continue to expand my gardens in the ground.

If these black pots can be used year after year, the investment will be worth it.  I don’t know much about them at all.  Can they stay up all winter, or will I have to empty it and store it?  If they don’t last, I will stick to the smaller ones only.

Planting Day is Coming Soon

greenhouse and seedlings
Almost planting time
I realize that many people have already planted their vegetable gardens, but here in the northeastern U.S. we just had snow this past Saturday! Not in southern NH where I live, but in the north. It was very cold and windy.

I have learned the hard way to be patient and wait for warmth (June) to plant my store bought tomato, basil, and zucchini plants. If seedlings are planted before the ground is warm enough, they won’t grow well. This is especially true for certain veggies, like green peppers. The reason we are told to make hills for planting squash and such, is so the little mound of dirt will warm up.

In the northeast we have had a ton of rain over the last week or so. I have put out a few seeds (carrots) and on the one nice day we had I added some marigolds to the garden. But my tomatoes, basil, cukes, and zucchini are still waiting in the green house. If the sun comes out, I move them out onto the deck for direct sunlight, but they go back into the green house for overnight. I love my little green house! It has really come in handy to store the seedlings and they are doing quite well. Some 90 degree days are coming this week, so I’ll get them into the yard by the weekend.

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A First Attempt at Fabric Pot Gardening

fabric pots
Growing Potatoes in Fabric Pots

I first learned about fabric pot gardening while reading a Wizzley article written by someone who also loves growing things. On his page he suggests growing potatoes in a pot made of black fabric or burlap.

Instantly, I loved this idea!  I don’t have to dig up the ground and get it ready to plant – whoo hoo – I hate that part of gardening.  I ordered three yards of compost / loam mix to add to all my garden beds and just used some of it to fill my black fabric bags.  The one on the left in my picture has potatoes and you can see one sprout shooting up through the dirt.  Once the shoots grow to 6 or 8 inches I will add more dirt.

The other pot has carrot seeds.  I figure they might do well in a good bag of soil instead of in my yard.   It’s always a chore to get the garden areas ready for planting.  I started at this house with an overgrown backyard so my first year here was spent clearing out the weeds and blackberry bushes.  Last year I expanded the garden area and added good dirt.  This year I am adding more dirt, but it’s easier to add it to bags and the chance of weeds invading a bag is minimal.

My backyard is quite small and my garden holds vegetables as well as flowers I’ve planted and flowering weeds.  Flowers of all kinds are good for attracting beneficial bugs to the garden area.  I am currently growing cold weather things like peas, basil, and strawberries (from last year).  I will have to wait until the first of June to get the cukes, tomatoes, basil and zucchini into the ground.

This type of gardening is experimental, but I am hoping for good results.  I even bought a large, round fabric bag and will set that up as soon as I get more dirt.  I started my own zucchini plants (5 of them!) this year from seeds I saved last summer and I may have to put a couple into that new pot along with some of my tomato plants.

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What I Bought at The Nursery

I shop for annuals once a year, usually at the end of May or beginning of June – like most other people who live in New England. If we shop too early, the plants have to wait somewhere until all chance of frost has passed. OR, they can go into the cold ground and take their chances. All plants cost too much to risk dying in a freeze, and I can’t be bothered to go out and cover my plants. I just wait and try to get them into the ground at the correct time. And slowly but surely I am learning how to garden in the north.

potted plants on the tailgate
Home From a Trip to The Nursery

So on my recent trip to “House by the Side of the Road”, this is what I came home with (my hanging fuchsia was on the front seat):

Tray on the left: Celebrity tomatoes:  These grew the best in last years vegetable garden.  I grew 5 varieties and these and the grape tomatoes were wonderful.  (I also bought grape tomatoes).  Pink Wave petunias- I guess these are a specialty because they were quite pricey – but I will use them in my hanging baskets.  I got six and will divide them between at least 3 baskets.  (These are plastic basket hangers I have kept from previous years).

Tray with flowers:  Zinnias, 3 packs of Marigolds (always have in my veggie garden), Cosmos (faves of mine) and Red Star impatiens – reddish pink and white stripes.

On the right are the perennials:  Right in front, with that big bud, is the Oriental Poppy.  To the left is the Monk’s Hood, and to the right is the Joe Pye Weed.  In the back are two hostas.

I plan to buy more perennials this Fall when the prices come down.  I especially want more Peonies to go around my deck, or maybe some new varieties of hydrangeas.

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Mother’s Day Gift: Fuchsia Hanging Basket

Even though I bought this fuchsia plant myself, my kids are going to chip in and pay for it as a belated Mother’s Day gift.  As each holiday comes around my kids ask what I want and I can’t ever say I want anything.  “Take me out to eat” is what I usually say.  Not cooking is the best gift I can think of.

Pink and white fuchsia hanging plant
My New Fuchsia Plant

But I recently splurged on this new hanging basket.  I saw it on my gardening expedition to Wilton where the nursery had tons of them to choose from. Some had purple and pink flowers (love those too) and one type had long, white pointy flowers – very different. But I chose this huge, pink and white one.

The only problem is that it’s too cold outside to hang it so it’s inside on a little table. It will have a permanent home out front under the beech trees once we get some warm weather. May began with warmth, but suddenly we’ve had two nights of 30 degrees. In New England we can’t plan on warm weather until about June.

I also bought some small petunia and vinca plants to make my own hanging baskets, which I’ll be doing soon.

Early Shopping For the Vegetable Garden

orange and yellow marigolds
Marigolds and Zinnias For My Garden

I headed over to House by The Side of The Road in Wilton, New Hampshire yesterday to look for hydrangeas and other flowering shrubs for my yard. I had never been in early spring to see what they had for vegetable plants, but thought I’d check it out.

This place is huge. They place big wagon-type carts all over the greenhouse area for customers to grab and fill up. I filled one with annuals – the marigolds, you see in the picture, and other things – then got another cart and headed outside to the perennial area. Continue reading “Early Shopping For the Vegetable Garden”